Old Craftsman Stick Welder Opinion
 

Hi.
Im still searching for that elusive under $100, 180+ Amp AC 220v stick
welder, and came across an 1980's vintage Craftsman 35-230 A AC
machine for $85. Havent bought it yet. Was wondering if any one can
tell me who manufactured these for Craftsman, or offer an opinion on
the welder itself.

Thanks for any info.
Art

When replying via email, please remove all caps from my return
address.

Take the model number off of it and check with your friendly local Sears
repair center. There's a fair chance they still have parts for it. OTOH,
buzz boxes usually work fine until they smoke, then they're beyond hope.
Other parts, cables, ground clamps, stinger, etc. are pretty generic and you
can pick up anything you need at any welding supply. But, as long as they
are kept in a reasonably clean, dry place, they're damned near immortal...

Jerry

"Art" wrote in message
...
Hi.
Im still searching for that elusive under $100, 180+ Amp AC 220v stick
welder, and came across an 1980's vintage Craftsman 35-230 A AC
machine for $85. Havent bought it yet. Was wondering if any one can
tell me who manufactured these for Craftsman, or offer an opinion on
the welder itself.

Thanks for any info.
Art

When replying via email, please remove all caps from my return
address.

Most or all of the few Craftsman welders that I've seen were made by
Century. I've only actually used one. It belonged to a friend and he asked
me to weld something for him and drug this thing out. I kept having
problems and looked up and realized that the current setting had changed so
I reset it where I needed it and it changed again.

It had a lever sticking out of a slot in the front that you move up or down
to set the current and there was a hand lever on it like a brake lever on a
bike that you squeeze to release it for adjustment. Every time I started
welding it would let the lever slip down. I finally got the job done by
having the friend hold the lever in position.

It can probably be fixed with an adjustment but I'd be sure before I bought
one like it. Aside from that it worked well enough.

Best Regards,
Keith Marshall


"I'm not grown up enough to be so old!"


"Art" wrote in message
...
Hi.
Im still searching for that elusive under $100, 180+ Amp AC 220v stick
welder, and came across an 1980's vintage Craftsman 35-230 A AC
machine for $85. Havent bought it yet. Was wondering if any one can
tell me who manufactured these for Craftsman, or offer an opinion on
the welder itself.

Thanks for any info.
Art

When replying via email, please remove all caps from my return
address.

Sear serial/model numbers are almost like TCP/IP, xxx.yyy.zzz sort of
thing, where xxx represent manufacturer, yyy represent model and zzz
are the serial number.

I had a "continuously variable" sears buzzbox, w/ a cupla other
bells/whistles, I think ""rated"" at 295 A. Thought I was movin up from my
plain-jane Lincoln tombstone.
Someone eventually stole the sears, and I'm glad they did. It was
miserable, like virtually everything sears makes, except for some hand
tools.

Their DieHard battery sucks beyond belief as well, not bothering to get weak
(so's you can have a clue), but instead dying precipitously.
And then they have the nerve to prorate the warranty...

I think mebbe the Sears peeple don't like electricity, or sump.
----------------------------
Mr. P.V.'d
formerly Droll Troll
"Keith Marshall" wrote in message
. com...
Most or all of the few Craftsman welders that I've seen were made by
Century. I've only actually used one. It belonged to a friend and he
asked me to weld something for him and drug this thing out. I kept having
problems and looked up and realized that the current setting had changed
so I reset it where I needed it and it changed again.

It had a lever sticking out of a slot in the front that you move up or
down to set the current and there was a hand lever on it like a brake
lever on a bike that you squeeze to release it for adjustment. Every time
I started welding it would let the lever slip down. I finally got the job
done by having the friend hold the lever in position.

It can probably be fixed with an adjustment but I'd be sure before I
bought one like it. Aside from that it worked well enough.

Best Regards,
Keith Marshall


"I'm not grown up enough to be so old!"


"Art" wrote in message
...
Hi.
Im still searching for that elusive under $100, 180+ Amp AC 220v stick
welder, and came across an 1980's vintage Craftsman 35-230 A AC
machine for $85. Havent bought it yet. Was wondering if any one can
tell me who manufactured these for Craftsman, or offer an opinion on
the welder itself.

Thanks for any info.
Art

When replying via email, please remove all caps from my return
address.

On Mon, 4 Apr 2005 19:11:58 -0400, "Proctologically Violated©®"
wrote:

I had a "continuously variable" sears buzzbox, w/ a cupla other
bells/whistles, I think ""rated"" at 295 A. Thought I was movin up from my
plain-jane Lincoln tombstone.
Someone eventually stole the sears, and I'm glad they did. It was
miserable, like virtually everything sears makes, except for some hand
tools.

Their DieHard battery sucks beyond belief as well, not bothering to get weak
(so's you can have a clue), but instead dying precipitously.
And then they have the nerve to prorate the warranty...

I think mebbe the Sears peeple don't like electricity, or sump.

Well, I had on OLD craftsman 230 (or possibly 280) and it worked just
fine. A lot bigger than my Emmerson, which was older and is still in
use (my brother has it at his shop) The Craftsman had a crank to move
the core to adjust the current, and the Emmerson has a bank of "jacks"
- you have 3 positions for the ground cable and six? for the stinger.
----------------------------
Mr. P.V.'d
formerly Droll Troll
"Keith Marshall" wrote in message
.com...
Most or all of the few Craftsman welders that I've seen were made by
Century. I've only actually used one. It belonged to a friend and he
asked me to weld something for him and drug this thing out. I kept having
problems and looked up and realized that the current setting had changed
so I reset it where I needed it and it changed again.

It had a lever sticking out of a slot in the front that you move up or
down to set the current and there was a hand lever on it like a brake
lever on a bike that you squeeze to release it for adjustment. Every time
I started welding it would let the lever slip down. I finally got the job
done by having the friend hold the lever in position.

It can probably be fixed with an adjustment but I'd be sure before I
bought one like it. Aside from that it worked well enough.

Best Regards,
Keith Marshall


"I'm not grown up enough to be so old!"


"Art" wrote in message
...
Hi.
Im still searching for that elusive under $100, 180+ Amp AC 220v stick
welder, and came across an 1980's vintage Craftsman 35-230 A AC
machine for $85. Havent bought it yet. Was wondering if any one can
tell me who manufactured these for Craftsman, or offer an opinion on
the welder itself.

Thanks for any info.
Art

When replying via email, please remove all caps from my return
address.

I think it was during the 80s that Lincoln made some machines for Sears.
IIRC they were very similar in internal design to the Lincoln AC-225
(Tombstone), and they had the same type of tap switch on them.

Bob


"Art" wrote in message
...
Hi.
Im still searching for that elusive under $100, 180+ Amp AC 220v stick
welder, and came across an 1980's vintage Craftsman 35-230 A AC
machine for $85. Havent bought it yet. Was wondering if any one can
tell me who manufactured these for Craftsman, or offer an opinion on
the welder itself.

Thanks for any info.
Art

When replying via email, please remove all caps from my return
address.

being a hobbyist on a budget and having been given a demo where a piece of
plate was "stuck" to another at right angles with a mig, then snapped apart
when I was supposed to be looking somewhere else. ( Obviously no
penetration.) I went with the current model Sears AC/DC box. It is a
Century I believe and has that slider adjustment. I will watch for it to
loosen up thanks to Keith. All in all the trailer I built and few other
projects have been fine. There are better machines but for my humble needs
I could not justify the higher priced wire machines especially after reading
what seemed like millions of posts about gas mixes and feed problems etc. I
am a simple kinda guy and the stick seems to have stuck everything together
for me so far.

"Art" wrote in message
...
Hi.
Im still searching for that elusive under $100, 180+ Amp AC 220v stick
welder, and came across an 1980's vintage Craftsman 35-230 A AC
machine for $85. Havent bought it yet. Was wondering if any one can
tell me who manufactured these for Craftsman, or offer an opinion on
the welder itself.

Thanks for any info.
Art

When replying via email, please remove all caps from my return
address.

It does seem that mig/tig can become ends unto themselves at times--lotta
stuff, fidgeting....
But ito of "good welds", mig is actually pretty hellified--excellent
penetration, control, from what I have seen--I myself have just squeezed the
trigger for a while, but I've seen that skinny little wire do really thick
mat'l, nicely.

But, as I posted elsewhere, I do feel like a stick-welding dinosaur, what w/
teenage girls on these un-reality TV shows migging and plasma-ing away.

However, there is ultimately not that much loss in versatility w/ plain old
stick:
You can get rod, admittedly pricey, that will minimize spatter, look really
nice, mig-like. Helps to have DC, tho--and good technique.
Also, there is hellified rod for stick welding aluminum--no preparation, no
cleaning, no nuthin, just BANG, good effing alum welds--on thick aluminum,
too! Not pretty, but good. DCreverse, IIRC.

Can we say that real men use stick and O/A?? :)
Or just broke men?? :(
----------------------------
Mr. P.V.'d
formerly Droll Troll
"Kerry" wrote in message
news:1Z75e.73$nt3.67@trndny04...
being a hobbyist on a budget and having been given a demo where a piece of
plate was "stuck" to another at right angles with a mig, then snapped
apart when I was supposed to be looking somewhere else. ( Obviously no
penetration.) I went with the current model Sears AC/DC box. It is a
Century I believe and has that slider adjustment. I will watch for it to
loosen up thanks to Keith. All in all the trailer I built and few other
projects have been fine. There are better machines but for my humble
needs I could not justify the higher priced wire machines especially after
reading what seemed like millions of posts about gas mixes and feed
problems etc. I am a simple kinda guy and the stick seems to have stuck
everything together for me so far.

"Art" wrote in message
...
Hi.
Im still searching for that elusive under $100, 180+ Amp AC 220v stick
welder, and came across an 1980's vintage Craftsman 35-230 A AC
machine for $85. Havent bought it yet. Was wondering if any one can
tell me who manufactured these for Craftsman, or offer an opinion on
the welder itself.

Thanks for any info.
Art

When replying via email, please remove all caps from my return
address.

I have heard of this problem before.

The clamping device on the adjusting lever needed adjustment.

Others have added a threaded rod like that used in the Miller
Thunderbolt.

I have been though the Century arc welder I have and have compared it
to the Lincoln tombstones that I have worked on.

The construction of the two brands of welders are more similar than you
might think.

TMT

On 7 Apr 2005 19:58:42 -0700, "Too_Many_Tools"
wrote:

I have heard of this problem before.

The clamping device on the adjusting lever needed adjustment.

Others have added a threaded rod like that used in the Miller
Thunderbolt.

I have been though the Century arc welder I have and have compared it
to the Lincoln tombstones that I have worked on.

The construction of the two brands of welders are more similar than you
might think.

TMT


I have the same Century, same clamping problem. Other than that, it
works rather well on ac or dc. Its one of my spares that I scrounged.
I need to either sell it to someone local or fix it and put it on ebay
or something.

Gunner

Rule #35
"That which does not kill you,
has made a huge tactical error"

You may want to keep it around.

When "friends" ask for a loaner welder, my Century is what they get.

They are happy and so am I. ;)

TMT

On 7 Apr 2005 21:19:14 -0700, "Too_Many_Tools"
wrote:

You may want to keep it around.

When "friends" ask for a loaner welder, my Century is what they get.

They are happy and so am I. ;)

TMT


Indeed.

On the other hand..Ive loaded so many of my buds down with welders in
the last year or so...they nearly all have one. Or more.

Gunner

Rule #35
"That which does not kill you,
has made a huge tactical error"